Jailbreaking your iPhone has a ton of benefits that give you actual control over your device—but it isn't always possible. If you're tired of waiting for the next version of iOS to be jailbroken, check out these tweaks and customizations you can make whether you're jailbroken or not.

With every iteration of iOS, Apple tweaks its software a little, but for the most part, the default …
Read more Read more

8. See the Actual Signal Strength in Your Menu Bar

The signal "bars" in iOS aren't exactly the pinnacle of accuracy, so if you want a better gauge of how good your service is, there's actually a hidden trick to show it in actual decibels (dBm). All it takes is a little fancy dialing and you'll have a much more accurate reading.

iOS: Tired of built-in apps like Stocks and Weather taking up space on your home screen when…
Read more Read more

6. Back Up Everything

iTunes backs up your settings every time you sync your iPhone, but it doesn't actually back up the data on your device (like music, apps, and videos) and it only keeps the latest backup around. If you want a more complete, versioned backup solution, you don't need to jailbreak—you just need a simple app called Phone Disk and a bit of command line-fu to copy everything back to your computer, so you never lose that data again.

In iOS 5, Apple added some slick multitasking gestures to the iPad that allow you to four-finger…
Read more Read more

4. Create Contact-Specific Vibrations

Giving each contact their own ringtone can be really useful, but you might not know that you can also give each of your contacts a specific vibration pattern—so even if you're on silent, you know who's calling before you even take your phone out of your pocket. The setting is hidden under Accessibility, and you can actually tap out your own cadences to create a ton of different patterns for each of your contacts, so you never need to wonder who's calling again.

Over the past few years, AT&T has gotten a bit of a bad reputation for their network, and…
Read more Read more

2. Tether Your Data Connection

Tethering—that is, sharing your phone's data connection with your computer—is one of the biggest features people jailbreak for, but if you can't jailbreak (or don't want to), you can still tether your device. You can either get it straight from your carrier (which, on some data plans, is now included) or use a cheap service like Tether.com, which shares your connection through a webapp. You won't be able to get it for free or with as many features, but at least you'll be able to get internet on your laptop when you're in a bind.